A Hard Lesson to Learn
by ShadowX116
Summary: AU. Lauren hasn't been herself lately. Her work has been getting turned in later and later and she's not very cheery anymore, but she won't tell Bendy why. What in the world has happened to his friend to cause this?


Dulled emerald eyes skimmed over the letter in her trembling hands for the tenth time. She was doing everything in her power to keep the tears from falling, but a few would escape here and there, her lower lip quivering as they did. She had been expecting this of course, but a small fraction of herself had held on to hope that it wasn't as bad as they'd thought. It wasn't that bad; it was so much worse. She needed to do something before it happened. She had to prevent-.

"Hey," a rather snarky voice interrupted her thoughts. "Whattaya doin', Lauren? Those scripts ain't gonna write themselves ya know." Out of the corner of her eye, Lauren glanced at source of the voice. She quickly placed the letter out of view. Her short dark hair framed her face in a way that her eyes and most of her paled face, thankfully, couldn't be seen. Usually the fact that the voice sounded a lot like someone from a group of three not-so-bright comedians would tug a grin onto her face. Just not today.

Her boss, for lack of a better term, was about four feet tall with an oval body, had slim arms that ended with paper-white gloves and equally thin legs attached to shiny black shoes. His head was rounded and curved up into two points. They reminded her of devil's horns. His normally white and vaguely heart-shaped face was tinged with the light grey of annoyance, his pointed tail flicking around behind him. His arms were crossed over his chest and black pacman-like eyes were narrowed to accompany the look of disappointment.

"We're late as it is, Lauren, and you're lagging the furthest behind. In fact, you've been slackin' in your work overall for the past couple weeks. I dunno what's gotten into your head lately, but ya need ta kick it to the curb and get back on track before ya derail any further. Joey's gonna be _furious_ if we miss the next-."

"Bendy," The name was barely a whisper. "May I ask you a serious question?"

The little cartoonish ink devil had paused mid-word. In the eight years he'd known her, he'd never heard her interrupt anyone or speak so softly, so.. so.. he didn't have another word to describe it. His eyes grew, returning to their normal size. His deep frown relaxed and his arms fell of their own accord. "S-sure. What's up?"

There was that pesky quiver on her lower lip again. She looked away, swallowing before taking a breath. "Do you age, Bendy?"

"Huh?" His face morphed into confusion. "What's that supposed'ta mean?"

"Do you age? You've been around for some time, and while you did a lot of learning and growing that way, you never change physically like humans do."

"Well that's cuz I ain't human. So what if I don't age like you?" He became further confused when the girl's shoulders began shaking. It wasn't cold in the room as far as he could tell so it couldn't be that, he reasoned. What was she on about? "Hey, this ain't like you, Lauren. What's goin' on?"

For a moment, she didn't seem to hear him. Suddenly, she stilled. Her shoulders slacked and she turned to face him properly with closed eyes and a soft smile. "I'll get my part of the work done by tonight, boss. It won't happen again."

"Y-yeah, sure." His eyes darted around as he scanned her face. For a moment, he felt _weird_. Why was she acting like the last few minutes hadn't happened?

Normally, Lauren would've had a light-hearted quip to bite back at his temper.

Normally, she would stand her ground on her efforts and insist that she was doing her best.

Normally, she would-.

Normally..

Something in the demon's mind clicked that this whole thing was very wrong. "Just, uh, get back ta doin' what you're supposed ta," Bendy said as he left the room. His tail wrapped around the door handle and pulled it closed behind him. The quiet sigh behind the door didn't slip past his attention, but he had to get a second opinion.

oo00oo

Joey was sitting at his desk and sorting through documents when the door to his office calmly swung open. Hazel eyes looked up to see his visitor. "Oh, Bendy," he said surprised. "Shouldn't you be upstairs supervising the junior team?"

"Well yeah," Bendy started, "but somethin' real _strange_ just happened."

"Strange how?" The pen in the forty-something year old's hand was abandoned along with the paperwork. If a living cartoon of about ten years old in a studio like theirs thought something was off, then it must be a heck of a doozy.

He sat in silence as his cartoon friend quickly recounted his conversation with one of the most loyal and hardest working members of said team. When Bendy was finished speaking, Joey clasped his hands together. "And you said she had a neatly folded piece of paper in her hands when you walked in?"

"Yeah."

Joey's face darkened slightly. "I see. And from what you told me, I imagine it wasn't a good message."

"Whattaya mean? Why was she actin' so different?"

"That's not for me to discuss. You'll have to ask her to tell you about it."

Bendy opened his mouth to ask something else, but was stopped by the sound of someone rapidly approaching the office.

"Mr. Drew, I-! Oh," Lauren stopped in her tracks when she saw the little devil already standing in the room. "S-sorry, I'll come back later."

"No need, Lauren, come in." He watched the brunette timidly walk in, Bendy stepping to the side to give her space. Oh boy, judging by the shift in her behavior, it was pretty bad. Joey's voice dropped to a more gentle tone. "So you heard back from them?" A nod. "And what do you plan to do?"

A sigh. Her head hung against her chest, face draped in shadow and obscured by hair. "Mr. Drew," a voice devoid of emotion emanated from the girl. "I would like to formally resign from the studio, effective at the end of my shift."

"Wh-what?!" Bendy's eyes widened into huge saucers, his mouth agape in disbelief. Both of the humans turned to him as he continued. "Ya can't just _quit_ on us, Lauren. What's all this about anyway? D-did someone threaten you in ta doin' this? I swear if anyone _dared_ to-."

"No," her quiet tone stifled the panicked grasping from the toon for a moment. "It's not like that, Bendy. No one's forcing me to do anything."

"Then _why_? Is it cuz of somethin' I said? Do ya think I was too harsh on ya? I-I know it's easy to get stressed out, but-."

"It's not that either. This isn't your fault."

"But then.. why?"

The young adult shifted to look up at the studio owner, seeking out permission to an unspoken question. After a nod to go ahead, Lauren sunk into a nearby seat and beckoned her 'boss' closer. "I asked you a little while ago if you aged and from what you said, you either don't know or it's much different from humans, right?"

Bendy nodded, his attention fully focused on her words now.

"Well you already know that humans start off very small, unable to do much of anything on their own, yeah?"

Another nod. "Uh-huh, and they grow into kids, then teens then adults and then older adults, right?"

"That's right, but you know getting to be that old doesn't mean we stop aging. We typically get to anywhere between eighty and ninety years old. Sometimes even over a hundred. One day, that eighty-something year old body will be working as always and then just.. stop. Once it does, it won't start again. Do you understand what I mean?"

He did understand. Even if he didn't want to admit it, he understood the concept, and he didn't like it one bit. "W-what's that got ta do with you? You ain't even twenty-seven yet!"

"Well, in an ideal world, we would live longer, but sometimes things happen to cut that time short. You know that too, don't you?"

"Yeah, but you ain't hurt. Y-you ain't in the hospital in a full body cast or nothin'!" His voice was slowly getting louder with panic. "You ain't sick either!"

"Are you sure?"

Emerald eyes locked with pitch-black, and Bendy froze. What did she mean? Of course he was sure! She looked perfectly fine! Okay, she might be down in the dumps, but she wasn't sick! She didn't look it anyway. He snapped out of his thoughts to look at the innocently folded paper Lauren pulled out of her pocket.

"This is a letter from the hospital, Bendy. I'm very ill, and they say they can't do anything to help me. They don't have a cure for this. It's not contagious, but it's too big of a problem for them to handle. There are just too many factors and not enough information."

"But there's gotta be _somethin'_ they can do, right? There's _always_ somethin'!" Somewhere in his subconscious, he noticed his eyes start to sting.

Lauren shook her head. "Not this time. You need to understand, this isn't the common cold or stomach flu or chicken pox. It's not even a virus. Something has gone wrong somewhere in my brain and it's affecting my nervous system as well. I can't sketch as well as I want to anymore. As you noticed, I can't really think straight a lot of the time either. That's why I've been slow and unhappy with what I turn in. I just can't keep up anymore. I'm quitting so that you guys can hire someone who can."

Bendy was eerily still by the time she'd finished. All at once, his face contorted into a mix of anger, fear and despair. Even his little white bowtie on his non-existent neck drooped. The floodgate had burst open. Now he knew why she was acting strange the last couple weeks. Now he knew she was trying to do what was best for him and the company. And most importantly, now he knew he was about to lose someone close to him.

Lauren was startled when the black and white mass collided with her and held on around her torso. She returned the hug, and pulled him closer so he could curl up properly.

"'snot _fair_ , Lauren. Why you? Why now," his voice warbled before a sob escaped him. Inky tears were flowing freely from him and soaking into the girl's shirt, but she didn't seem to mind. He in turn felt hot watery drops falling on his head, but a little bit of salt water wouldn't hurt him. That was nothing compared to the bomb that had detonated a few moments before.

"There aren't many things that are fair, Bendy, but there _are_ many things that make life worth it anyway. You're one of those reasons, you know?"

"I am," he asked as he looked up at her.

"You make me and so many others smile every time we see you," she answered. Her eyes were shining again with the tiny spark he missed, and she was giving a real smile. When was the last time he'd seen her like that? "People like us look to you because you know how to make us feel happy again, even if it's only for a little while."

"B-but what am I supposed'ta do when someone that makes _me_ smile ain't there no more?"

"You move on." Shock crossed the demon's face and he was stopped before he could speak. "Moving on doesn't mean that you forget them or that you can't cry, but you can't let yourself fall apart and give up. You still have your own life to live and there are still a lot of people who need you."

"Speaking of which," they both looked at Joey. "How long did they say you had?"

Lauren took a breath to steady her voice. "Could be a year, could be only six months, sir."

He shook his head. No matter how many times he'd told her before that she didn't have to be formal, she seemed determined to keep some old habits. "Okay then. Well since there's suddenly been an opening on the team, I'd like to hire you as an Assistant Supervisor," Joey was grinning as the other two tried to process what he meant.

"S-sir? Are you sure? Like I said, I can't keep up with-."

"That is why I'm placing you in a supervisor role. Besides, it should make the quality assurance process a bit faster and, hey, you more than deserve a promotion for all the time and work you've done here. I know you spot mistakes just as easily and ruthlessly as Bendy does, and even if you aren't sure, you can still ask him to look at it as well."

"I.. Well, thank you Mr. Drew, but the letter also says I shouldn't drive or move around much. That means no commuting back and forth to the studio either."

"Then stay here," exclaimed the little devil in her lap. "There are cots and a bathroom 'round somewhere and stuff that ya need all right here. Ya don't have ta go nowhere, right Joey?"

"It's your choice of course Lauren, but it's an option. And you said you have at minimum six months, so why not? Did you have anything else in mind to do in that time?"

"Well I guess not. I'd have to tell my landlord and get my belongings out of the apartment."

"As one would expect. I'll drive you there after your shift and help you get it sorted out."

She sat there, gaze shifting between the company owner and the demon on her lap that now seemed ecstatic at the idea, despite the blots of ink still resting on his glimmering eyes. She couldn't exactly say no to that, now could she? "Thank you, sir, I'll do my very best," she said, beaming with relief.

"He already knows that," Bendy snuggled into her torso again. "An' here I thought you hated hearin' redundancies."

"Oh, you mean like how much you hate it when I try to out-sass a certain cheeky little devil," she laughed.

"There can only be _one_ cheeky lil' devil 'round here, sweetheart, and that would be _me_ ," said devil proclaimed with pride. They both shared a real laugh for the first time in weeks, and it felt wonderful. He knew he would have to say goodbye to her eventually, and the idea behind that _hurt_. He buried it just as quickly as it had appeared. Yes, that day would come. Just not today.

* * *

And there's my offering for the Bendy and the Ink Machine fandom. It may not mesh well with the canon, but it did its job to let me send a huge ball of sadness somewhere.  
I kept Lauren's illness vague on purpose (but it's not cancer, it's a neurological disorder. Just clarifying because two of my beta readers got confused about it). My grandfather passed away back in March and I never really got a chance to mourn him properly. I don't remember what exactly caused it, but I do remember that a particularly bad seizure is what set off a whole bunch of other things to go wrong. I was stuck in a weird world of depression that I couldn't get rid of, so I took the topic of death and prompted myself with a question; how do you explain the concept of death to a ten year old non-human who probably doesn't age and acts like an adult without necessarily having the knowledge/thought process of one?

I was originally intending to make the ending much sadder. Originally, Lauren was going to quit without Bendy's knowledge, which would lead him to hate her for leaving without a word. After several months he would find out why she left and ask Joey to let him visit her in the hospital, which unfortunately would be the same day she died. I scrapped it because I barely had it 1/4th of the way done and I couldn't stop crying. Call me a big baby if you want, but do remember that I was wrestling with a large ball of sadness while trying to pick out the right words.

So if you liked it, hated it, or any combo in between, review it. I haven't written in a while and I'd like to see where I stand in comparison to the last projects I started.  
Here's a cookie, and have a nice day!  
(::)


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